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BiPs'tcn, Sc\oo\ C^C'ro^v'tt^a^^ 



REPORT 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 



SYSTEMS OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, 



IN THE CITIES OF 



NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE 
AND WASHINGTON. 




BOSTON: 
ALFRED MUDGE & SON, CITY PRINTERS, 34 SCHOOL STREET. 

'^ \ 186 7. 



/. 



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k 



CITY OF BOSTON 



-^^ In School Committee, March 13, 1866. 

Ordered : That a Committee, consisting of five members of this 
Board, with the addition of the President of the Board, and the 
Superintendent of Public Schools, be appointed and authorized to 
proceed to New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, and examine 
the Schools and the whole system of Public Instruction in those 
cities, and make themselves thoroughly acquainted with the condi- 
tion of those schools, and with the practical working of their sys- 
tems, with a view to ascertain whether there be anything in their 
principles, modes of instruction, discipline, or anything of'^any kind, 
that may be satisfactorily introduced into our own schools in this 
city ; and that said Committee make a full Report of their doings, 
at the quarterly meeting of this Board in June next. 

Passed : and the Chair appointed as the Committee Messrs. S. 
K. Lothrop, N. B. Shurtleff, Henry Burroughs, Jr., J. Baxter 
Upham, and Thos. M. Brewer. 

Attest, 

BARNARD CAPEN, Secretary. 



CITY OF BOSTON 



In Board of Aldermen, April 9, 1866. 

Ordered : That His Honor the Mayor, the Superintendent of 
Public Schools, a Sub-Committee of the School Committee, and 
such members of the Joint Standing Committee on Public Instruc- 
tion as choose to accompany them, be authorized to make an 
official visit to New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, for the 
purpose of examining the Schools and the systems of Public 
Instruction in those cities ; and that the expense attending the 
same, to an amount not exceeding fifteen hundred dollars, be 
charged to the appropriation for Incidental Expenses. 

Passed. Sent down for concurrence. 

G. W. MES SINGER, Chairman. 

In Common Council, April 12, 1866. 

Concurred. 

JOSEPH STORY, President. 

Approved, April 14, 1866. 

F. W. LINCOLN, Jr., Mayor. 



CITY OF BOSTON. 



May 15, 1866. 

At a meeting' of the Committee of the City Council and the 

School Board on Visiting Schools in other Cities, it was voted, 

that S. K. Lothrop, J. Baxter Upham, and John D. Philbrick be a 

Sub-Committee to report to the School Board the proceedings and 

conclusions of this Committee. 

Attest 

JOHN D. PHILBRICK, 

Secretary of the Committee. 



In School Committee^ June 19, 1866, 
On motion of Dr. Lothrop, after a brief oral report, it was 
Voted : That the Committee appointed under the Order passed 

March 13, to visit the schools of other cities, be allowed further 

time, and permission to report in print. 

Attest 

BARNARD CAPEN, 

Secretary, 



1* 



REPORT 



" Be not wise in your own conceits " is often good, but not 
always palatable advice. Useful to all, it is sometimes espe- 
cially useful, both as a caution and a stimulus, to those individuals 
or communities who have been pioneers in any great or good 
work. These pioneers sometimes become indolent and self- 
satisfied; they relax their energies and slacken their efforts; 
they are thus outstripped by their followers, surpassed by 
their imitators, and left to fall from the front to the rear. 

In the great cause of popular education, Massachusetts has 
been a pioneer State. She was the first to appoint a State 
Board of Education for the wise supervision and energetic 
advancement of this great department of the public interests; 
and, under its influence, her common schools, first in the order 
of time, became prominent in character; and, for the last thirty 
years, persons from distant and different parts of our country 
have visited Massachusetts, especially this city, to examine our 
schools, to learn our system, to get ideas, principles, methods, 
that they might adopt, apply, and, if possible, improve upon 
them at home. 

Under these circumstances, it seemed the part of wisdom, to 
inquire whether such improvement had been made, and to 
ascertain by personal examination, whether, in the better organ- 
ization or larger powers of their School Boards, in their 
generous and unstinted appropriations, in the ease and freedom 
with which they had adopted new methods and better principles, 



8 

and in the energy and enterprise with which they had made the 
changes which those methods and principles required, some of 
the cities and States, outside of New England, were not carrying 
forward the great work of popular education with an earnest- 
ness and fidelity, that had placed, or would soon place, their 
schools in advance of ours. 

It was the consciousness of our danger and duty, as thus 
indicated, that led to the action of the School Committee whose 
results are now to he reported. That action may be regarded 
as an epoch in our educational history, as it was the first dis- 
tinct, official recognition of the importance of looking abroad 
for light and knowledge, to aid in the improvement and more 
perfect administration of our system of popular education. At 
the quarterly meeting of the School Committee, held on the 
13th of March last, the following order was adopted: 

" Ordered: That a Committee of five members of this Board, 
with the addition of the President of the Board, and the Superin- 
tendent of Public Schools, be appointed and authorized to proceed 
to New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, and examine the schools 
and the whole system of Public Instruction in those cities, and 
make themselves thoroughly acquainted with their condition, and 
with the practical working of their systems, with a view to ascer- 
tain whether there be anything in their principles, modes of 
instruction, discipline, or anything of any kind, that maj' be satisfac- 
torily and beneficially introduced into our own schools in this city ; 
said Committee to make full report of their doings at the quar- 
terly meeting of this Board in June next." 

At the first meeting of the Committee thus raised, it was de- 
termined to communicate the fact of their appointment and 
purpose to the Committee on Public Instruction of the City 
Government, and suggest that througli some action of the Boards 
of Aldermen and Common Council, the Committee on Public 
Instruction should be authorized to join us in the contemplated 



vidit ; that thus all the informatioa acquired might come directly 
before all persons in any way officially intrusted with the inter- 
ests of public education in our city. This measure, wise and 
appropriate in itself, was followed by the good result anticipated : 
and by the action of both branches of the City Government, 
the Committee on Public Instruction was authorized to unite 
with the Committee of the School Board in the proposed exam- 
inations, and a generous provision made to meet the expense of 
the enterprise. 

Under the arrangement thus approved by the City Govern- 
ment, tlie whole Committee was constituted as follows : 

Hon. F. W. Lincoln, Mayor, and President of School Committee ; 
Aldermen, Gaffield, Slack, Mayo ; Councilmen, Haynes, Caverly, and 
Rich,, of the Committee on Public Instruction ; Messrs. S. K. 
Lothrop, Shurtleff', Burroughs, Upham and Brewer, of the School 
Committee ; and John D. Philbrick, Superintendent of Public 
Schools, who was chosen Secretary of the Committee. 

Having had the necessary correspondence with the School Com- 
mittees, in the different cities, apprising them of our proposed visit, 
the Committee left Boston on Monday, the sixteenth of April, and 
under the direction of a Committee, appointed by the New York 
Board of Education, of which Hon. Richard Warren was Chair- 
man, commenced their work in that city, a quarter before nine 
o'clock on Tuesday morning, the seventeenth. The Committee 
spent Tuesday and Wednesday in New York, and visited the 
Grammar and Primary departments of six schools, and the Free 
Academy. The schools selected were three on the west side of 
Broadway, viz ; School No. 35, in Thirteenth Street ; School No. 
47, in Twelfth Street, and School No. 3, in Grove Street; and 
three on east side of Broadway, viz ; School No. 15, in Fifth 
Street ; School No. 40, in Twenty-third Street ; and School No. 50, 
in Twentieth Street. In the structure of the edifices, and in gen- 
eral organization these schools resemble each other, and repro- 



10 

sent the prevalent plan of the New York schools, both as re- 
spects school-houses and internal arrangement and classification. 
The Primary and Grammar departments are in the same building ; 
the former in the lower or basement story, the latter in the upper 
stories, in one of which there is a large, spacious hall, in which 
the whole school can be assembled. These halls are com- 
monly ornamented with busts, and pictures, and present a 
very attractive and agreeable appearance. In the hall of the 
first school we visited, — No. 35, — there were as many as 
twenty busts, in appropriate positions. This school has 1,000 
pupils, twenty-four teachers, nineteen regular — six male, thir- 
teen female — and five special, two drawing, one music, one 
French, and one penmanship. There are sixteen class-rooms in 
the building, which do not compare favorably with the hall, as 
they are most of them small and crowded. There is a ward- 
robe built inside of each class-room. 

The pupils assemble in their class-rooms a few moments be- 
fore 9, A.M., the hour for the school to open ; and, caps, bonnets, 
and outer garments being laid aside in the wardrobes, they 
march to the music of a piano, in the order of their classes, each 
class under the charge of its teacher, to their several positions 
in the hall, when a chapter of the Bible is read, a hymn sung, 
and the Lord's Prayer repeated by the Principal and the pupils ; 
after which they retire in the same order, to the sound of music, 
to their several class-rooms, where the work and instruction of 
the school begin. Evidently great attention is paid to this 
morning gathering of the whole school in the hall. The Com- 
mittee witnessed it in several of the schools visited, and always 
it was done with the utmost precision and regularity in the gen- 
eral movement, and with the most careful attention to position, 
bearing and manners in the individual pupils, and its good eflFect 
upon the order and discipline of the school, and in begetting 
habits of regularity and attention was quite observable. In one 
school, No. 50, in Twentieth Street, where the school was sum- 



11 

moned to the hall after the morning exercises, merely that the 
Committee might see them all assemble, the pupils — girls — 
came in to a quickstep, in fact dancing into the hall, with as 
much regularity, however, and with as much grace and precision 
of movement, as when they mai-ched in with measured tread ; 
and immediately as each class got to its position in the hall, it 
began gymnastic exercises with hands and arms, the movements 
lively and spirited, and the whole effect interesting and exciting. 
Indeed the calisthenic or gymnastic exercises at this school, in 
their variety, the spirit, force and precision with which they were 
performed, could hardly be surpassed. 

In the school No. 35, which the Committee visited first, many 
of the pupils were over twelve years of age when they entered 
the Grammar Department. This school sent to the Free Acad- 
emy last year one hundred and thirty-three, and has in prepara- 
tion as candidates for admission next year one hundred and 
sixty-five. The Primary Department numbers four hundred 
and sixty pupils, ten teachers, six class-rooms. At the close of 
the visit to this school, addresses were made by Hon. Richard 
Warren, Mayor Lincoln and Dr. Lothrop. 

School No. 47, in Twelfth Street, is for Girls. It is called a 
Grammar School, but the senior department is virtually a High 
School, the age of the pupils apparently and the course of 
studies corresponding to those of our Girls' High and Normal 
School. In this department there are nine regular teachers, 
with special teachers in drawing, music, French, and penmanship. 
There are three hundred pupils, who assembled in the hall to 
the sound of music, in graceful and dignified movement, were 
examined in English literature, and subsequently addressed by 
Mr. Philbrick. 

The junior department of this school corresponds to the two 
or three upper classes in one of our Grammar Schools, has five 
hundred pupils, nine teachers, six class-rooms. Here we heard 
very good singing, and after a brief examination, some remarks 



12 

were made by Alderman Gaffield in behalf of our Committee. 
The Primary Department numbers seven hundred and eight 
pupils, ten teachers, and eight classes. Here we heard some 
good reading from seven pupils, selected as specimens of the 
school, and a lesson in object teaching was given by Mr. Moore, 
special teacher in that mode of instruction. The calisthenic 
exercises in this school were very good. The two upper classes 
in this school were from twelve to fourteen years of age, corre- 
sponding to the third class in our Grammar Schools, and about 
one hundred write with pen and ink. Here, as in many of the 
school-houses in New York, the janitor lives in the basement of 
the building and has a salary of $750. 

School No. 3, Grove Street, has a Grammar Department for 
boys, a Grammar Department for girls and a Primary Depart- 
ment. In this school the boys are not encouraged, as in School 
35, in Twelfth Street, to prepare for the Free Academy, but for 
some mechanical or commercial employment ; and a tablet hangs 
on the wall showing the names, and destination or employment 
of graduates of the school ; and this tablet shows that a large 
majority had passed directly from this school into some active 
business pursuit, and were regarded as honoring the school by 
so doing. In the Girls' Grammar Department good drawings 
and pictures, executed by the pupils, were exhibited. The Pri- 
mary Department is for both sexes, though they are separated in 
the class-rooms and in the halls, — the lower part of the hall in 
the Primary Department being constructed with rows of seats 
ascending so as to form a sort of gallery, and accommodating 
four hundred and fifty, or about one half, of the pupils. At the 
close of our brief examination of the school, remarks were made 
by Alderman Slack in the Boys', by Rev. Dr. Burroughs in the 
Girls', and by the Mayor in the Primary Department. 

On Wednesday morning the Committee visited School No. 15, 
East Fifth Street, arriving in season to witness the usual gather- 
ing of the pupils in the hall, and the opening exercises of the 



13 

school. The building is new, and like most of the school-houses 
recently erected, it has in the rear an extra stair-case, fire-proof. 
In some of the rooms there was a simple and ingenious contriv- 
ance in the construction of the seats, by which the back of one 
could be turned up, so as to become a writing desk for the next 
behind it. This school has eleven teachers, three hundred and 
fifty pupils, mostly from the less wealthy classes. Order, neat- 
ness, tidiness and appropriateness in dress, and healthy and in- 
telligent countenances marked the school ; and the drill and cal- 
isthenic exercises were equal to anything we had seen. It has a 
supplementary class above the Grammar grade, and at the re- 
quest of our Committee, Mr. Randall, Superintendent of Public 
Schools in New York, examined the first division of this class 
quite thoroughly in Arithmetic, Grammar, Grecian and Roman 
History, Geometry and Natural Philosophy, and in all these 
branches the pupils acquitted themselves so as to reflect credit 
upon themselves and their teachers. Your Committee were 
the more interested in this examination, on learning that it 
was from such classes, that most of the female teachers in the 
city are drawn. Brief addresses were made at this school by 
Mr. Warren, of New York, and by Dr. Lothrop. 

Most of the Primary Schools in New York are in the base- 
ment story of the Grammar School buildings ; but recently some 
specially Primary school-houses have been erected. The Com- 
mittee visited one of these, School No. 26, Bast Twelfth Street. 
Here we found seventeen teachers, sixteen class-rooms, and a 
hall large enough to accommodate the one thousand pupils who 
attend, most of whom are of German or Irish parentage. They 
were summoned from their class-rooms into the hall, on our 
arrival ; and in the order, neatness and discipline exhibited, in the 
perfect quiet and freedom from all restlessness with which they 
kept their positions, every eye turned with attention to the plat- 
form, they made a most favorable impression upon the Committee. 
2 



14 

After singing and other exercises, remarks were addressed to 
them by Mayor Lincoln. 

School No. 40, East Twenty-third Street. — Here the pupils 
were summoned from their class-rooms, sixteen in number, to the 
liall ; and in five minutes' time, eight hundred boys, with admira- 
ble order and quietness filed to their places. The energy, 
promptness and precision indicated in this, seemed to characterize 
the school in all other respects. The hall was bright, cheer- 
ful, and ornamented with busts, and at the conclusion of our visit, 
a brief address was made by Mr. Philbrick. The Primary 
department in this school seemed marked by the same energy, 
earnestness, and proficiency; and in the four ground rules of 
arithmetic, which is as far as the pupils are carried, the answers 
were especially prompt and correct; and in School No. 50, East 
Twentieth Street, whose admirable calisthenic exercises have 
already been noticed, we heard some excellent reading by pupils 
in the first class. 

The Committee visited the Free Academy, but as the lectures 
and exercises for the day were nearly over, there was little 
opportunity for any examination of pupils. The Committee 
met the Vice President and some of the Professors in the excel- 
lent Library of the Academy, and received from the Vice-Pres- 
ident a statement of the origin and character of the institution. 
The Free Academy of the City of New York was established 
by an act of the Legislature of the Steite in 1849. It is under 
the charge of the Board of Education, who conduct it through 
an " Executive Committee for the Care, Government and Man- 
agement of the Free Academy." It has a good situation, 
a large and commodious edifice, with the requisite hall, library, 
class-rooms and lecture-rooms, on the corner of East Twenty- 
second Street and Lexington Avenue, the whole cost of which, 
including purchase of lot, erection of building, furniture, and 
repairs up to 1865, was about $97,000: present value, 



15 

$124,000. It has a library of valuable classical, scientific and 
historical works, — in number nearly 12,000 volumes, exclusive 
of text-books and books of reference, which are furnished by 
the city, and number about 12,000 more. It has a very good 
philosophical apparatus, a valuable cabinet of natural history, 
and a large number of casts, models and various works of 
art. In short it is thoroughly furnished and appointed as a col- 
legiate institution, and is sustained and conducted at a cost of 
about $90,000 a year. It has fourteen professors, and as many 
tutors as may from time to time be required. The present num- 
ber of teachers in the Free Academy is twenty-five, making with 
the registrar, librarian, assistants in laboratory and janitor 
etc., thirty persons, whose salaries, varying from $4,750 to $500, 
amount in all to over $73,000. The regular course of study 
covers five years, and the students are divided into the Intro- 
ductory, Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior Classes. 
The annual examination for admission is in July, and the 
conditions are residence in the city, fourteen years of age, 
previous attendance upon some Grammar School in the city for 
at least one year, and a satisfactory examination in Spelling, 
Reading, Writing, English Grammar, Arithmetic, Algebra, as 
far as and including quadratic equations. Geography, History of 
the United States, and Elementary Book-keeping. If a larger 
number are found qualified for admission than can be received 
and accommodated, preference is given to those who have 
attended longest some Grammar School in the city. There are 
two examinations for advancement in the course of the year, — 
in February and July. These are public; are conducted by 
oral and written questions in each study, and no student is 
allowed to advance to the next class, unless the examination shows 
him qualified for the advancement. At either of these examin- 
ations, candidates may be examined and admitted to advanced 
standing upon the conditions already mentioned, and a satisfac- 
tory examination in the previous studies of the class which they 



16 

wish to enter. The pupil, on entering, may pursue the full 
course of studies with ancient languages, the full course with 
modern languages, or a partial course, embracing any studies 
less than either of the full courses ; but the election must be 
made on entrance, registered and filed at the Academy, with the 
approval of the parent or guardian of the pupil. The Library, 
under stringent but wise regulations, is free for the use of the 
teachers and pupils. By law, the Board of Education is au- 
thorized to confer degrees on the recommendation of the Faculty, 
which is composed of all the professors. The degrees con- 
ferred are Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Sciences, and Master 
of Arts and Master of Sciences. For the Bachelor's degree, 
the Faculty recommend no one whose average standing in any 
study of the Senior year has fallen below seven-tenths of the 
maximum ; and a Bachelor of three years' standing may receive 
a Master's degree provided he show, to the satisfaction of the 
Faculty, that in the interval he has been engaged in some lit- 
erary or scientific pursuit, and has sustained a good moral char- 
acter. There are also Frizes, Gold and Silver Medals, and 
other testimonials, for eminence and success in particular de- 
partments, established through the liberality of individuals, like 
our Franklin Medals and the Lawrence Prizes in our High 
Schools. And the Trustees of the New York Medical College 
gratuitously admit to its course of instruction a number of young 
men, of good moral character, not exceeding five at any one 
time, who have distinguished themselves at the Free Academy, 
and are recommended by its Faculty. At the last examination 
for admission, four hundred and thirty candidates were examined, 
three hundred and ninety adpiitted, one hundred and fifty- 
four of whom chose the full course with the ancient, and two 
hundred and thirty-six with the modern languages. The whole 
number of candidates examined for admission to the Free Acad- 
emy since its institution, is 6,185, — admitted, 4,926, — rejected, 
1,259, — chose ancient languages, 2,734, — chose modern Ian- 



17 

guages, 2,192, — average age of whole number, fourteen years, 
six monthS; twenty-five days, — average time of attendance in 
public Grammar Schools, three years, one month, sixteen days. 

The above account of the New York Free Academy shows it 
to be a noble institution. 

Leaving New York on Wednesday evening, the Committee 
were prepared to begin their work in Philadelphia early on 
Thursday morning ; and, under the direction of the President and 
other members of the Board of Control, went first to the Wash- 
ington Street School, in Fifth Street. This is a new building, 
two stories, with eleven class-rooms and three departments; 
viz., Grammar, Secondary, and Primary, on either floor. The 
school is for both sexes, but they are separated, the boys on one 
and the girls on another floor. Here are in fact six independent 
schools, three on either floor ; and the rooms of a department, 
Grammar or Primary, for instance, are separated by glass par- 
titions, the sashes of which can be thrown up and the whole de- 
partment made a unit, when necessary, but there is no hall for the 
general assembling of the whole school ; only four of the school ed- 
ifices in the city have such halls. After a brief examination of this 
school, and hearing some reading and singing, we were conducted 
to the Locust Street Grammar School, for girls, two hundred 
and forty pupils, five teachers, four class-rooms. Here we found 
the pupils quite advanced in studies, and somewhat older than 
the average ago at Grammar Schools, and learned in explanation 
that the purpose and ambition of the teachers, with the approval 
of the Comptrollers, was to graduate pupils from this school 
competent and qualified to become teachers. The general 
aspect of the school and an examination of the first division in 
the Constitution of the United States, and of the third division 
in geography, bore testimony to the faithful and assiduous 
labors both of teachers and pupils. In none of the Phila- 
delphia schools did there seem to be so much attention paid to 
drill and calisthenic exercises, as in those of New York. The 

2* 



18 

pupils assembled, however, witli quiet precision In the hall with 
which the Locust Street School is provided ; and, after singing 
and other exercises, some remarks were addressed to them by 
Dr. Lothrop. 

Zane Street Grammar School, for girls, has a large hall, of 
good proportions, and ornamented with busts, pictures, and en- 
gravings, in which, on our arrival, we found the pupils — two 
hundred and ninety, — and six teachers assembled. Here, as 
in the Locust Street School, the exercises and all our inquiries 
and examinations indicated earnestness and fidelity. Both these 
schools are under the exclusive charge of female teachers. There 
seemed to be little studying done in school. Lessons were 
learned at home, and the time in school chiefly spent in recita- 
tions and oral instruction. In Philadelphia, as in New York, 
the School Committees do not make any regular examinations 
corresponding to our quarterly examinations ; and, in general, 
the only test of the condition and progress of a Grammar School is 
the examination of its pupils for admission to the High Schools ; 
but Miss Webb, the Principal of this school, showed us a book 
in which she had recorded the results of the examinations, four 
times a year, of all her pupils, for fifteen consecutive years, 
which our Superintendent regarded as the best thing of the 
kind he had ever seen in any Grammar School. At the con- 
clusion of the visit to the Zane Street School, the pupils were 
addressed by Mayor Lincoln. 

After these visits to three Grammar Schools, we were con- 
ducted to the Girls' High and Normal School, in Sergeant Street, 
which has three hundred and fifty pupils, and eleven teachers. 
New classes are admitted from the Grammar Schools every six 
months, and as the course of instruction covers three years, there 
are of necessity six classes or divisions in the school. Candi- 
dates for admission must be fourteen years of age, and have at- 
tended the public schools of the city for at least one year, and 
be residents of the city. The literary qualifications for admis- 



19 

sion are similar to those for admission to our Girls' High and 
Normal School. The Girls' High School in Philadelphia is con- 
ducted wholly upon the departmental system of instruction, each 
teacher having a particular branch, — History, Grammar, or 
Algebra, etc., and receiving in turn all the classes in this branch. 
No teacher is permitted to have any text-book at the recitation, 
but must be so thoroughly acquainted with the subject, as to be 
able to conduct the exercises of the class without the text-book. 
This tends to produce a very pronounced, animated and prompt 
manner of question and answer, and discussion in the class-room, 
which was very noticeable in the five or six rooms, which the 
Committee visited, and where the exercise went on as usual, un- 
interrupted by their presence. In one of these rooms, we 
found a pupil of the graduating class conducting the recitation 
or lesson in geography of one of the lower classes, the regular 
teacher present, inspecting the manner in which the work was 
done, and giving credits to the pupil-teacher according to her esti- 
mate of her merit. The pupils intending to prepare themselves 
to be teachers are, in all the departments, summoned in turn to 
this service, and thus get practical training for their future office. 
Most of the studying is done out of school, and requires a con- 
siderable portion of the hours of the afternoon and evening. 
After visiting the various departments of this school, and finding 
everywhere earnestness and thorough instruction, the Committee 
ascended to the Hall, where the whole school assembled and we 
heard singing, and an examination in the elements of music, con- 
ducted by the special teacher in that branch, which were strongly 
commended by the competent authority of one of our colleagues. 
Dr. Upham. 

Addresses were then made by Mr. Shippen, President of 
the Philadelphia Board of Control, by Dr. Lothrop, Mr. Bur- 
roughs, Mr. Philbrick and by His Honor Morton McMichael, 
Mayor of Philadelphia. The daily session of this school is five 
hours ; the number of recitations for each pupil, five j the average 



20 

attendance ninety- seven per cent, which is very large, when we 
consider that some of the pupils come three or four, and some 
five miles to attend. 

From the Girls' High and Normal, we were conducted to the 
Central High School for boys. This is a noble institution, corre- 
sponding to the New York Free Academy rather than to anything 
we have in our own city. It is, in fact, a collegiate institution, 
conferring the degree of A. M. on the graduates of the four 
years' course of not less than five years standing; of A. B. 
on those who complete the four years' course ; and giving a cer- 
tificate of " Distinguished " to those who do not complete the 
course, but have obtained term averages for scholarship over 
ninety- five ; and of " Meritorious " to those, who, leaving 
before completing the course, have attained term averages for 
scholarship between eighty-five and ninety-five. The institution 
was organized in 1838, and since then has received in all 
about six thousand pupils, one-half of whom left before or at 
the expiration of two years, and only about one thousand re- 
mained to complete the course. The school edifice in Broad 
Street is large, commodious, and well appointed, having a large 
hall, large class-rooms, and valuable philosophical and astronom- 
ical apparatus. It has a principal and fourteen professors, and 
over five hundred pupils. The institution is organized upon 
the departmental system, — each teacher or professor having his 
specialty. We went through most of the departments, and 
found everywhere tokens of earnestness and thorough and broad 
culture, and the most ample provision made for the thorough 
and progressive conduct of the school. At the conclusion of 
our visit, the pupils were assembled in the large hall, which is 
here on the lower floor, and were addressed by Alderman Slack. 
On Friday, April 20, the Committee visited, first the Mifflin 
Secondary School for both sexes, — boys on one story, girls on 
another. Here we heard some very good concert reading of pas- 
sages of Scripture, and concert spelling very correct, very prompt, 



21 

— sometimes so rapid as to be rather indistinct. Each word 
was pronounced and spelled twice. The pupils in these Secon- 
dary Schools, in age and studies, correspond to the lower class 
in our grammar, and the upper class in our Primary Schools ; and 
transfers are made to the Grammar Schools every quarter. In 
the boys' school remarks were made by Mr. Rich, and in the 
girls' by Mr. Slack. 

From the Mifflin, the Committee were conducted to the 
Twentieth Ward School, a fine new building, three stories, 
with accommodations for a Grammar and Primary School for 
boys, and the same for girls, — four schools. We heard here 
some good singing, and met the teacher of music, who is paid fif- 
teen cents a quarter by each pupil, and who, remunerated in this 
way, teaches in fifteen schools. With the exception of the 
Girls' High and Normal School, scientific instruction in the 
elements of music by a competent teacher, appointed by the school 
authorities and paid from the school appropriations, is not given 
in the Philadelphia Public Schools. A brief examination, in the . 
History of the United States, gave us some opportunity to judge 
of the methods and thoroughness of the instruction at this school, 
to the pupils of which some remarks were made by Dr. Brewer. 

From the Twentieth Ward Schools we were conducted to the 
Lincoln Grammar School. This is the finest school edifice in 
Philadelphia, recently erected of free-stone, at a cost, including 
its furnishing, of $22,000. The internal arrangement is good; 
the stairways, hall and class-rooms are spacious, but the clothes- 
rooms rather small ; the seats in the hall are constructed some- 
what after the pattern of those in New York, in which the back 
of one seat turns up and serves as , a writing-desk to the seat 
behind it. Here, after a brief examination, and reading, singing 
and other exercises, bouquets of flowers were presented to 
Mayor Lincoln in the girls' department, and to Mr. Philbrick in 
the boys'; and remarks were made by both these gentlemen 
and by Dr. Lothrop, who had to speak without the inspiration 
of a bouquet. 



22 

Leaving Philadelphia on Saturday, for Baltimore and Wash- 
ington, the Committee occupied Monday morning, the 23d of 
April, in a brief examination of the schools of Washington, and 
went first to the New York Freedman's School, kept in a large, 
old, wooden building fitted up for the purpose. This school is 
organized with five grades, viz : Infant, Primary, Intermediate, 
Junior and Senior department. It holds one session a day from 
nine, a.m., to two, p.m. It has ten teachers, five hundred and 
seventy scholars, apparently of all ages from six to sixty, and 
an average attendance of eighty-four per cent. Most of the 
teachers are from New York and New England, and persons of 
experience in the work. Their statements as to the general 
good conduct of the pupils, and their eagerness and aptness to 
learn were confirmed by all that the Committee observed. 
Cleanliness, order and attention prevailed everywhere. In many 
cases very rapid progress had been made, and in the Senior 
department, among pupils who had been longest and most regu- 
lar in attendance, a good knowledge of arithmetic and geography 
was exhibited. Here we heard some good reading and singing, 
and the physical or gymnastic exercises were well performed. 

The Committee then visited the Wallack Grammar School, 
named in honor of the present Mayor of the city, whose father 
was a Boston boy. In architectural effect this is an imposing 
building, and is the best and largest school edifice in the city, 
though the foundations of a much larger one have already 
been laid. It is built of brick, with iron stair-frames, window- 
sills and door-lintels. It has a large hall and ten class-rooms, 
twenty-five by thirty and a half feet, — the ceilings fifteen feet 
in the clear, — furnished with double desks, and accommodations 
for sixty pupils in each. The cost was $27,000, exclusive of 
the land. It is well situated in the eastern part of the city, with 
large yards and play-grounds. There are two schools in the 
building, one for boys and the other for girls ; and the brief 
examination which the Committee were able to make, both of the 



23 

edifice and of the organization, instruction and discipline of the 
school, gave the most gratifying and satisfactory evidence that in 
this great work of popular education, upon which the conserva- 
tion of the country and its institutions depends, Washington 
means to place herself in the front rank, on a line with the 
Northern cities. 

The Committee on leaving the Wallack School made brief 
visits to the Boston Freedman's School, and to the New England 
Freedman's School. The former is so called, because the teach- 
ers in the several rooms are supported by one or another of the 
churches or religious societies in Boston. One of the teachers 
here, and evidently, judging from the condition of her school, not 
the least efficient one, is of African descent, born in Canada, of 
refugee slave parents, educated in Canada and at the Oberlin 
Institute. At the New England Freedman's School we heard 
some recitations in mental arithmetic, which, with a few excep- 
tions, were excellent, the girls commonly more prompt than the 
boys. The whole number of pupils in the Freedman's Schools 
in Washington is about four thousand, about the same as the num- 
ber in the other schools, public and private, of the city. Leav- 
ing Washington on Monday evening, the Committee were ready 
to begin their work in Baltimore at an early hour on Tuesday 
morning, the 24th of April, and went first to the Freedman's 
School, which is organized and conducted on the Boston plan ; 
seven out of the eight teachers being from Massachusetts, and 
one or two of them persons formerly engaged in teaching in our 
own schools, and in the cards, slates, text-books and other 
instrumentalities, we found much to remind us of home. The 
pupils appeared bright, cleanly, orderly and eager to learn, and 
the teachers as excellent and competent, as they were faithful and 
devoted. "■ Barbara Fritchie " was sung with spirit and expres- 
sion, and in the highest class we heard a recitation in Decimal 
Fractions that was in every way creditable. 

Prom the Freedman's School we were conducted to the office of 



24 

the Commissioners of Public Schools, which we foimd decorated 
with flags and mottoes, — " Boston/' " Baltimore," " Education," 
" Union," — and passed on from that to High School for boys. 
In all its appointments but the building, which is old and ill-con- 
trived, this is a noble institution. It is conducted wholly on the 
departmental plan, has nine professors, each instructing in his 
specialty, a regular course of four years, though attendance for 
the fifth year is permitted. There is no election of studies al- 
lowed and no separate English course, but the studies are so 
arranged that the branches of each year are mostly complete. 
It has about two hundred and thirty pupils, and each pupil has 
twenty-five recitations a week. The studies for first year 
are Latin, German, Algebra, Geometry, Natural Philosophy, 
History, English Language, Elocution and Writing, and to this last 
one hour is given every day, in a writing-room, where the pupils 
stand at their work. In the second year French takes the place 
of German, Mensuration of Algebra, Physiology of Natural Phi- 
losophy, and Book-keeping of Writing. In the third year, Latin, 
Greek, German, French, Surveying ,Navigation, Astronomy, Natu- 
ral Philosophy, Book-keeping, History, Rhetoric and Elocution. 
In the fourth year, Languages, Astronomy, Rhetoric and Elocu- 
tion, as ill third ; and Analytical Geometry and Calculus, Chem- 
istry, Mental and Moral Philosophy, and Constitution of United 
States. After listening to some of the recitations, which the 
professors were conducting in their class-rooms, we ascended to 
the hall, where the whole school soon assembled, the boys coming 
in by classes, but with little of that regular military-drill move- 
ment, which marked the schools in New York and to some extent 
those of Philadelphia. Here we listened to declamations, reading 
and translating from French and German, and other languages. 
Some remarks were then addressed to pupils by Dr. Lothrop. 

From the High School for Boys, our next visit was to the 
Western Female High School, in a new and excellent school- 
house, two stories, with an adequate number of well-arranged 



25 

and appointed class-rooms on the lower floor, and the whole of 
the second devoted to a large spacious hall, with a platform at 
either end, and double desks. After spending some time in the 
class-rooms on the lower floor, we ascended to the hall, which we 
found beautifully decorated with flags and mottoes ; and soon the 
pupils filed in to the music of the piano, two sections at a time, 
from opposite sides, taking their position, and sitting simultane- 
ously. There are three hundred and twenty-seven pupils, a 
Principal, and eight regular teachers, and three special ; viz, 
French, Drawing, and Music. When all were assembled and 
quiet, one of the pupils ascended the platform on which we were 
seated, with the Baltimore Committee, and, with a fine, graceful 
pose of body, clear and distinct utterance, excellent emphasis 
and intonation, read '•' A Welcome to the Boston Delegation." 
This was followed by the reading, on the part of eight or ten 
difierent pupils, of various passages in prose and poetry, pas- 
sages from Everett and Webster, and recent patriotic poems, 
such as "Maryland, the Heart of the Union;" "Barbara 
Fritchie ;" " Sheridan's Ride," etc. All the reading was good, 
but the Committee were very much struck with the reading of 
Edgar Foe's "Bells," by Miss Scott. She stood on the platform 
at the opposite end of the hall, at least ninety feet from us, and 
yet every syllable was distinctly articulated and heard. With 
a voice of great compass, power and flexibility, a delicate musical 
ear, and a thoroughly dramatic conception of the piece, she 
read it with singular force and expression, and in the varying 
refrain of the " Bells, bells, bells," she took such musical note as 
was appropriate, and so modulated her voice, now cheerful, 
merry, joyous, now solemn, sad, plaintive, that one might 
almost believe that he heard "the jingling, tinkling," " the twang 
and clang," the "throbbing," "sobbing," "rolling," "tolling," 
" moaning," " groaning " of each bell, as the sounds of her voice 
vibrated round the hall, and died away into silence. As a speci- 
men of dramatic reading, it was marvellous, and would have 
3 



26 

excited admiration in any assembly capable of appreciating it. 
When asked subsequently who taught her to read that piece so, 
her answer was, " I don't know, sir ; I suppose I taught myself ! " 
another testimony to the truth of the old adage that " reading 
and writing come by nature." We found that the studying was 
chiefly done out of school, but not under too high pressure. The 
pupils looked healthy and cheerful, not overworked, yet thor- 
oughly interested; and all that we heard in the examination 
indicated thorough instruction and pleasant relations between the 
pupils and the teachers. At the close of the visit an address 
was made by Dr. Burroughs. 

From the West, the Committee visited the East Female High 
School, in an old and inferior building, three stories, the hall in 
the upper story, with a platform the whole length of one 
side, on the centre of which was the master's desk. Here we 
found the hall decorated, the pupils assembled in it, and an ad- 
dress of welcome was made by the Principal, a Latin School 
boy, and a graduate of Amherst College. Then we listened to 
various exercises, examinations, the reading of original essays 
or compositions, some by recent graduates of the school, music 
etc. Addresses were made by the Mayor, Mr. Philbrick and Mr. 
Slack. After this pretty thorough examination of the three High 
Schools, the Committee closed their work in Baltimore by a visit 
to a Grammar School, three hundred and fifty pupils, seven teach- 
ers, — about fifty pupils in a room, — the rooms on the same 
floor, like those in Philadelphia, separated by glass partitions. 
Here the reading was good, and the answers to questions prompt 
and correct. Having accomplished the object of their visit, the 
Committee returned to Boston on the 27th of April, and the next 
week, while the impression of what they had seen abroad was 
fresh upon their minds, they spent two or three days in visiting 
the three High and some of the Grammar and Primary Schools 
in our own city, that with a fresh knowledge of these, their 
judgment and comparison of all that they had seen might be 
wise, broad and unprejudiced. 



27 

Having presented this narrative of their work, the Committee 
propose to oiFer a brief analysis of the systems in the four cities 
visited, as regards the organization and authority of the School 
Boards, the school edifices and accommodations, and the organ 
izations and grades of schools in their mutual relations and 
influences, course of study, methods of instruction, discipline, 
etc., etc. They take that of New York first, as the oldest, 
largest, most mature, and, presenting a sketch of that, will briefly 
point out wherein the other cities differ from New York. 

ORGANIZATION AND POWERS OF THE SCHOOL AUTHORITIES. 

For educational purposes, the city of New York is divided 
into seven districts, and at the Charter Election, each of these 
districts elects one Commissioner of Common Schools, to hold 
ofi&ce for three years, so that each district has three Commission- 
ers, and these District Commissioners, twenty-one in all, consti- 
tute a Board of Education for the city and county of New York. 
To this Board, invested by law with powers amply adequate to 
the purpose, the general charge, management, and progressive 
improvement of the whole system of common schools and public 
education in the city of New York are intrusted. There is in 
each ward a local board, called the Board of Trustees, consist- 
ing of five members, holding ofiice for five years, one chosen at 
each Charter Election. There is also a Board of Inspectors of 
Common Schools, one for each School District, nominated by 
the Mayor of the city to the Board of Education, whose vote on the 
confirmation must be taken by yeas and nays ; and all these School 
Ofiicers, Commissioners, Trustees, Inspectors, must, within fifteen 
days after their term of office begins, take and subscribe before the 
Clerk of the Board of Education, the oath of office prescribed 
by the Constitution of the State, and in case any one neglects to 
do so, the office is declared vacant. To these three Boards thus 
constituted everything connected with the interests and manage- 
ment of common schools, and the great interests of public 



28 

instruction and popular education in the city and county of 
New York is committed. The essential power is in the hands 
of the twenty-one Commissioners who constitute the Board of 
Education. The title to all school property, real and personal, 
is vested in the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the City 
of New York ; but the care and control of this property rest 
with the Board of Education ; all suits in relation to it must be 
brought in the name of the Board; the purchase of any new 
site by the school officers of any ward must first have their 
consent ; and all contracts for the erection, fitting up, or repair- 
ing any building, with specifications, etc., must be submitted for 
their inspection and approval, and the requisite appropriation is 
determined by their vote. Through an Executive Committee of 
five of their own body, they have the exclusive supervision, man- 
agement and control of the Free Academy. They appoint the 
City Superintendent of Common Schools, and his Assistants, and 
the Superintendent of School Buildings, and determine their 
respective powers, duties, salaries, etc. They may remove from 
office any school officer guilty of immoral or disgraceful conduct 
in his official duties, and bringing discredit upon his office or the 
school system, and upon a written charge made by one or more 
tax-payers against any school officer for violation or neglect of 
the legal provisions of his office, they must investigate the 
charge, and have power through the Court of Common Pleas 
to compel the attendance of witnesses and take testimony 
under oath. The power to establish new, and discontinue old 
schools, rests with them. They may do this by a majority vote, 
with the consent of the Trustees of the Ward ; and, by a two- 
thirds vote of their own body, they may do this without such 
consent ; and, upon their neglect or refusal to establish a new 
school, when requested to do so, by a written application of the 
Trustees of any ward, an appeal lies to State Superintendent 
.of Public Instruction, and his decision is binding upon all the 
parties concerned. They have power to establish Normal 



29 

Schools, and Evening Schools for those whose ages or avocations 
prevent their attending the day schools. They estimate and 
report to the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of New 
York, in November of each year, the amount of money that will 
be needed for all the purposes of Public Instruction, and appor- 
tion and disburse the same, and in January, make an annual 
report to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and to 
the Common Council of the City of New York. In general it is 
the duty, and is in the power of the Board of Education, by 
general rules and regulations, to provide a proper classification 
of studies, scholars, and salaries ; and through the other Boards, 
and the Superintendent of Public Schools, promote sound edu- 
cation, elevate the character and qualifications of teachers, 
improve the means and methods of instruction, and advance the 
interests of the schools committed to their charge. 

The Board of Trustees have the safe keeping of all the 
premises and other property belonging to the Ward Schools, 
furnishing supplies, etc., and under such rules and regulations, 
and subject to such limitations as the Board of Education may 
prescribe, they conduct and manage said schools, and at least 
five days before the 1st of January, in each year, make to the 
Board of Education, a full statistical Report in regard to each 
school. The Board of Inspectors act first as an Auditing Com- 
mittee, on the accounts or expenditures of the Trustees of the wards. 
It is their duty, also, to examine at least once every quarter, all 
the schools, each in his district, in respect to punctual and regular 
attendance, number, fidelity, competency of teachers, the studies, 
progress, order and discipline of the pupils, cleanliness, safety, 
warming, ventilation, etc., of the school premises, and call the 
attention of the Trustees and of the Board of Education to 
anything in respect to the condition, efficiency, and wants of the 
schools that they may deem important. 

Some of the more general duties of the Superintendent of 
Public Schools, in the city of New York, are defined by State 
3* 



30 

law, but under rules and regulations established by the Board 
of Education, he examines into all matters relating to the govern- 
ment, course of instruction, books, discipline, and conduct of the 
schools, condition of school-houses ; advises with the Trustees in 
relation to their duties, and, in conjunction with at least two 
Inspectors examines and gives certificates or licenses, stating 
the grade, to persons found qualified to be teachers ; and in the 
same way, he can revoke these licenses for any cause affecting the 
morality or competency of the teachers, in which case, as from 
all his acts and decisions, an appeal lies to the State Superinten- 
.dent of Public Instruction. 

Such is a general outline of the organization of the School 
Authorities of the city and county of New York. If it seem 
.at first somewhat complicated, it will be found on inspection to 
be only a wise division of labor and responsibility, with the essen- 
tial and controlling power, that is to be the inspiration and guide 
of the whole system, and give it all needed unity, residing in the 
twenty-one Commissioners who constitute the Board of Education. 
The system abounds indeed with checks and balances, whose 
necessity was indicated by experience, and in all important par- 
ticulars is the result of special State legislation for the city and 
county of New York. 

Under the administration of the system, as carried out by the 
Board of Education, a degree of order, precision and energy of 
action has been attained, which lias carried, and, if persevered 
in, must continue to carry forward the great work of popular 
education in the city of New York, with a steady and strong 
progress, both in the broadness of its diffusion, and the excel- 
lence of its character. In the administration of the system, 
while it is important that all its officers should be competent 
and faithful, yet its practical efficiency is largely dependent upon 
the capacity and fidelity of two of these officers : first, the Clerk 
of the Board of Education, who has under him a Deputy Clerk, 
and as many Assistant Clerks as the Board may direct, all of 



31 

whom are under the direction of the Clerk. We cannot under- 
take to enumerate all his powers and duties, but can only say 
generally that his office is the centre around which the whole 
work revolves, the point from which essentially everything ema- 
nates, and to which it returns ; and the returns are required to 
be made so full and precise, and the record of them kept so 
perfect, and so arranged, that it is possible to obtain at the 
Clerk's office, at any time, all the essential facts in relation to 
every, school; viz, the names, number, salaries, grades of its 
teachers, the number of its pupils, the average attendance, and 
the amount of supplies of all kinds, books, stationery, fuel, etc., 
with the cost of the same ; also the cost of repairs, cleaning, 
rents, gas, printing, advertising, etc. ; and this for each distinct 
scliool, from the Free Academy down to the smallest ward 
school. Second, the Superintendent of Public Schools 
and his assistants, who visit and examine the schools, as to their 
condition and progress, and the fidelity and efficiency of the 
teachers. As the clerk's office is the centre of the material 
administration of the New York system, so the Superintendent's 
office is the centre of its intellectual and moral efficiency, of the 
character of the schools as instrumentalities of education, and of 
the character of the teachers as competent and efficient instruct- 
ors, exemplars and guides to the young. The Trustees of the 
ward have the power to appoint the teachers of all grades in the 
schools of the ward, but the Superintendent virtually determines 
from among whom the appointments shall be made, and the 
tenure of office depends mainly upon him ; because no person 
can be appointed as teacher by the Trustees unless holding a 
license or certificate, signed by the Superintendent, stating the 
grade of teacher for which the holder is qualified ; and if subse- 
quently, experience, reached through the visits and examinations 
of the Superintendent or his assistants, shows that the holder is not 
qualified, wants tact, energy, efficiency, or is in any way incom- 
petent or unfit for the work, the license or certificate is revoked 



32 

and the teacher removed. This plan of intrusting the visitations 
and examinations of the schools, the power to judge of the prac- 
tical efficiency, competency and fidelity of teachers, etc., — 
mainly and specially to experts, to persons appointed to the work 
because their culture, mental habits and experience specially fit 
them for it, must tend to make the schools progressive, to secure 
the services of the best teachers and the adoption of the best 
methods. 

Of course there are other officers, such as the Superintendent 
of School Buildings, the Engineer, the Inspector of Fuel, and the 
various sub-committees of the Board of Education, whose fidelity 
in the special work assigned them, contributes largely to the suc- 
cessful working of the whole organization. Yet it seems to be 
mainly through these two channels, — the Clerk of the Board of 
Education with his assistants, and the Superintendent of Public 
Schools with his assistants, that the New York system has reached 
its thorough and exact external, its spirited and progressive inter- 
nal administration. 

There are, too, precautionary enactments worthy of notice. 
''No teacher shall be appointed in any school, to whom any 
school officer, entitled to act upon the question of the appoint- 
ment or payment of such teacher, is related by blood or marriage, 
as father, son, brother, uncle, nephew, or first cousin." This 
provision, however, does not apply to the employment, promotion, 
or transfer of such teachers as Avere already in the schools, pre- 
vious to the election of the school officer who may be thus related 
to them. Any school officer who shall have been directly or 
indirectly interested in the furnishing of any supplies or materi- 
als, or in the doing of any work or labor, or in the sale or leasing 
of any real estate, or in any proposal, agreement or contract for any 
of these purposes, in any case in which the price or consideration 
is to be paid in whole or in part, or directly or indirectly out of 
any school moneys, or who shall have received from any source 
whatever, any commission or other compensation in connection 



33 

with any of the matters aforesaid," may be immediately removed 
from office by the Board of Education, and upon the conviction of 
the misdemeanor " may be punished by a fine not exceeding one 
thousand dollars, and imprisonment in the city prison not exceed- 
ing one year," and becomes ineligible to any school office. All 
contracts for books, stationery, fuel and supplies of all kinds for 
the public schools, are made on advertisements of the Clerk of 
the Board of Education inviting proposals, and stating the 
quantity and quality of the article, time of delivery, etc., and 
are given to the lowest bidder. 

ORGANIZATION OP SCHOOLS AND STRUCTURE OP SCHOOL-HOUSES 
IN THEIR MUTUAL RELATION TO EACH OTHER. 

The New York system of free public instruction for all her 
children embraces, like ours in Boston, three grades of schools : 
first, the Free Academy, already specially noticed, which corre- 
sponds to what our Latin and English High Schools would be 
united in one institution, and is, in some particulars, in advance 
of what these two schools would be, if united with their present 
course of studies and methods of instruction; second, Gram- 
mar ; third. Primary Schools. There are some exceptions, but 
generally the Primary Schools are mixed schools, the boys and 
girls not separated. In all the Grammar Schools the sexes are 
separated. One peculiarity in the organization and arrange- 
ments for the accommodation of these schools is that the three, 
the Primary, the Grammar School for boys and that for girls 
are all in the same building, under the same roof Hitherto the 
general and all but universal plan in New York has been one 
large school-house, three stories high, — the lower floor for the 
Primary, the second floor for the Boys' Grammar, and the third 
for the Girls' Grammar, the basement occupied by the janitor 
who has charge of the building, fuel, fires, cleaning, keeping in 
order, etc. On each of these floors there is one large room or 
hall for the assembling of the whole school, with the requisite 



34 

number of cloak and class rooms for the accommodation of the 
different classes or grades in the school. For the purposes of 
supervision, and the care of the Primary scholars by their older 
brothers and sisters in going to and from school, there is an ad- 
vantage in this compactness, this concentration at one spot of 
the children of all ages. Apparently it is felt that some evils 
are connected with it, as recently the school authorities in New 
York have, in several instances, adopted the plan which gener- 
ally prevails with us, and erected some edifices, specially for 
Primary, or for Boys' Grammar or for Girls' Grammar Schools. 
Internally all these schools are arranged and conducted upon 
the same plan. In each there is a Principal, a Vice-Principal 
and the requisite number of assistant teachers, thirty pupils to 
each teacher in the Grammar, and forty-five to each teacher in 
the Primary Schools, exclusive of the Principal and teachers of 
special subjects, being the ratio. The boys' schools have a male 
Principal and Vice-Principal, with female assistants in the 
lower grades, but in all the girls' schools the Principal and all 
the subordinate teachers are females ; and in all the schools. Pri- 
mary and Grammar, the pupils are divided or distinguished, not 
by classes but by grades, and the grades designated, not by the 
text-book used, as in our programme, but by the studies pursued. 
In the Primary there are five grades, and in the Grammar 
Schools six. 

METHODS OP INSTRUCTION, COURSE OP STUDIES, PROMOTIONS, DIS- 
CIPLINE, ETC. 

In all the schools of all grades in New York, the Principal of 
a school has no class-room, and no particular class or grade 
which he instructs, and for whose progress and proficiency he is 
specially responsible. He has the general supervision and 
superintendence of the whole school, keeps up a perpetual round 
of inspection, and by his frequent visits to the different class- 
rooms, examinations of the pupils, suggestions and directions to 



35 

the teachers, he becomes the inspiration and guide of all, mould- 
ing the instruction, the discipline, and the whole condition and 
influence of the school to such character, as his genius and apti- 
tude for his office, his experience and fidelity, may determine. 
This position of the Principal is one of the marked and peculiar 
features in the New York schools. Of course, in a position 
whose duties are so undefined, in which so much is intrusted to 
individual judgment and fidelity, and where, through the assiduity 
of the subordinate teachers, indolence and negligence in the 
Principal may exist for some time before they are discovered, it 
is of the utmost importance to have the right sort of man. The 
Principal, in a school thus organized, should not only be intellect- 
ually competent through culture, training and experience, but his 
heart should be in his work ; lie should feel the glory and re- 
sponsibility of his office, and under the noblest aspirations and 
the honorable ambition of usefulness, he should give himself to 
his work with a wisdom that is constantly enlarging, and a devo- 
tion that knows no limits to its efforts. With a Principal of this 
character, a school thus organized cannot but have a spirit of 
unity, power and progress pervading the whole of it, far beyond 
what would be found in a school where the Master or Principal 
gives all or nearly all his time to the instruction of the first class, 
for whose condition he is specially responsible, and exercises 
and can exercise, only the most general supervision of the whole 
school. As a general statement the New York schools bear 
such testimony to the efficacy of their system in this particular, 
that it is matter of congratulation that, in accordance with the 
suggestion of our ever wise and thoughtful Superintendent, the 
School Board of the City of Boston have been led to adopt this 
system so far as to allow the District Committees, if they shall 
see fit, to release the Master of the Grammar School of the Dis- 
trict from the special charge of the First Division of the First 
Class, and devote himself more fully to the constant and thorough 
supervision of the whole of the Grammar, and of all the Primary 



36 

Schools in the District. The compact form ot the schools and 
the school buildings in New York, to which allusion has already 
been made, and through which the Principal of any Department, 
Primary, or Boys' Grammar, or Girls' Grammar School, has all 
the classes and teachers over whom he is to exercise supervision, 
and to whom he is to be a quickening incentive and a wise 
guide, immediately around him, and has no occasion to go out of 
the building or be at any great distance from any one room dur- 
ing the school session, may perhaps tend to give greater prac- 
tical efiiciency to this particular feature in their system, than it 
will be likely to attain with us, where the district covers a con- 
siderable extent of territory, and the Primary Schools are scat-, 
tered over it, many of them at considerable distance from the 
Grammar School of which the Master is specially the head ; and 
some have thought that if we propose to fully adopt and apply 
this feature in the New York system, it would be necessary, or 
at least wise and beneficial for us to compact our Primary 
Schools in one building in each District, that thus the Master or 
Principal of the District would have but two points at which to 
have his supervisory and inspiring influence felt, viz, the Gram- 
mar School and the Primary School building. The probability 
is, however, that experience would reveal neither the necessity 
nor wisdom of such concentration of all the Primary Schools of 
a District. Our plan of a number of Primary Schools scattered' 
about at different points in a District has been too long estab- 
lished, and is too judicious in itself to be lightly changed. It 
affords easy and convenient school accommodations in different 
neighborhoods of the District to the young, small children who 
attend the Primary Schools, and it allows to the isolated teachers 
a good degree of independence, and throws them more largely 
upon their own responsibility than would be the case, if they 
were all brought into one concentrated and compact school- 
building. To adopt the New York idea, — that of a Principal, 
whose duty is not the instruction of a particular class, but that 



37 

of supervision, inspection, suggestion, incentive to all classes, 
and all teachers, — and apply it to our schools, as at present 
organized and situated, is one thing ; to change their organization 
and situation, in order to apply the idea, is another and quite a 
different thing. Such a change does not seem to be demanded, 
nor would it be expedient, under the present organization and 
relations of our Grammar and Primary Schools. In each Dis- 
trict, the New^ York idea or principle can be easily applied, and, 
as the power to apply it has been already intrusted by the Board 
to the several district Committees, the probability is, that in pro- 
portion as this power is exercised in some of the districts, the 
beneficial results observed and experienced will lead to its uni- 
versal application. 

Another feature in the New York Schools, is that they have 
no High School for girls. Through the Free Academy they 
have for nearly twenty years offered to boys the most thorough, 
enlarged and advanced culture, but the girls have had to content 
themselves with a supplementary grade in the Grammar Schools. 
Whenever, in any Grammar School for girls, there are fifteen 
pupils who have gone through the regular grades, and wish to 
remain, they may remain for two years — constituting a supple- 
mentary grade, and pursuing a supplementary course, and are 
entitled to a special teacher. This is and has been felt to be 
a defect, and the Board of Education, having the power, con- 
template the early establishment of a Girls' High School. Should 
it correspond at all in its appointments to the Free Academy, 
and offer to girls the same thorough and enlarged culture which 
that offers to boys, it will be a noble institution. 

But the most important feature in the New York Schools is 
that the course of instruction is indicated by the subjects of 
study, and not by text-books. There is no uniformity of 
text-books. The local Committees, the Trustees in each 
ward, order the use of such as they may select from the list per- 
mitted by the Board of Education; and they are sometimes 
4 



38 ' 

similar and sometimes different in different schools. But the 
Board of Education determine the subjects that shall be pursued 
by the different grades, and these are uniform in all the grades, 
and in all the schools ; and as the programme of instruction and 
study is thus indicated by subjects, the examination is by subjects, 
and not by text-books, and is conducted by experts — by the 
Superintendent and his assistants — that is, by persons who are 
masters of the subjects, and care nothing about particular text-books. 
In Boston, we indicate the studies by the text-books which we 
adopt and order to be used, and they are the same in all the 
schools of the same grade ; and the quarterly examinations, made 
by members of a committee, chosen from the different walks of 
life, daily engaged in their individual occupations, and seldom 
experts or masters in any particular study, are conducted by text- 
books, because commonly the Committee can only thus examine. 
One effect of this is that the Master, the teacher, knowing that 
the examination of his or her pupils will be in and by the par- 
ticular text-book ordered, is necessarily tempted to a very 
thorough memoriter drill in the text-book, and aims first to make 
the scholars masters of what the text-book teaches, and in the 
form in which it is there taught ; and thus much time is wasted 
in learning some things that are not important, or in learning 
others in a particular form and to express them in that form, 
and thus there is little opportunity for broad, general instruction, • 
that shall tend to lead the pupil to a clear comprehension and 
understanding of the whole subject taught, with power to 
express what he knows about in his own way, in forms indepen- 
dent of any particular text-book. The New York teacher, on 
the other hand, knowing that his pupils are to be examined, not 
by or in the particular text-book which he uses, but in the general 
subject of that text-book, and that they will be expected to know 
all about it, up to the point which the pupils of that grade should 
reach at the time of the examination, has no inducement to con- 
fine himself too closely to the text-book, or to make its particular 



39 

forms the mode and limits of his instruction. On the contrary, 
the text-book becomes only a help, hardly a guide, and nothing of 
a restraint or boundary, but through that and a large amount of 
oral instruction and conversation, the teachers aim to give the 
pupils a broad, general comprehension of the subject, so that they 
may understand and be able to answer questions on that subject, 
in whatever form they are put. Indeed the New York system 
seems to offer the opportunity and to require a large amount of 
oral, conversational instruction, so much so that it is somewhat 
difficult to perceive when the lessons are learned, save as they are 
learned at and through the recitation, and in conversation with 
the teachers. No teacher is permitted to assign any lesson to be 
learned out of school, until it shall have been sufficiently explained 
and illustrated by the teacher to the class. The school session in 
New York is from 9, a. m., to 2, p. m. : from 2, p. m., to 9, a. m., 
the next day is out of school time, yet lessons requiring two 
hours' study, ir a pupil of ordinary capacity, is the utmost 
limit to which lessons to be learned out of school can be 
assigned ; and out-of-school lessons, requiring much individual 
judgment and thought, such as exercises in grammatical analysis 
and parsing, and in written or mental arithmetic, can be 
assigned only to pupils of the first and the supplementary grades ; 
and as every teacher in a New York school teaches one section 
of a grade, all of whom are studying the same subject at the 
same time, it follows that his great work is to teach, and not to 
give tasks, and hear recitations in lessons assigned. In our 
schools perhaps there is too much task-work upon lessons 
assigned ; in the New York schools, perhaps there is not enough : 
yet the two features which have just been considered, the pro- 
gramme of instruction indicated by subjects and not by text- 
books, and the consequent examinations by the Superintendents 
in subjects and not in text-books, seem to be giving to the New 
York schools a remarkable degree of uniformity and a steady 
progress in each school. It is a question worthy of considera- 



40 

tion whether it would not be well for us to adopt the first of 
these features, by arranging, under the authority of the whole 
Board, a programme of subjects or studies for our Grammar as 
we have already done for our Primary Schools. This point and 
everything connected with it seems so important, that we cannot 
better close our imperfect account of the New York system than 
by the programme of subjects or studies as at present ordered 
by the Board of Education : 

COURSE OF STUDIES OF THE GRAMMAR AND 
PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 



COUESE OF STUDIES IN PEIMAEY SCHOOLS. 
FIFTH GRADE. 

Alphabet Class. — Beading alphabet and familiar words from 
blackboard or chart ; exercises in enunciating simple elementary 
sounds of letters. 

Numeral Frame. — Counting and adding on numeral frame by 
ones and by twos. 

Arabic Figures. — Reading at sight any number from 1 to 99. 

Object Lessons. — Teaching the children, by means of common 
objects, to observe simple forms, colors, positions, and parts of 
objects, of the human body and of familiar animals ; each lesson 
to be conducted with a view to cultivate habits of attention and 
observation. 

Primer Class. — Reading and Spelling from charts, blackboard 
and primer, with illustrations of the meaning of the words used ; 
exercises in enunciating elementary sounds of letters. 

Numeral Frame. — Adding on numeral frame by twos, threes, 
fours, and fives ; also, taking away ones, twos, and thi-ees from 
greater numbers. 

Arabic Figures. — Reading at sight numbers through three fig- 
ures (999), and writing numbers on slates as far as 100. 

Roman Numbers. — I, V and X, with their combinations. 

Object Lessons. — The subjects of the Alphabet Class continued, 
with new objects and illustrations. 



41 

Use of Slates. — Printing easy words, and copying simple figures 
from the blackboard. 

Lessons in Morals and Manners — inculcated with appropriate 
illustrations by means of incidents, anecdotes, etc. Similar les- 
sons to be given in the Alphabet Class. 

]Sr. B. — No exercise in the fifth grade should exceed twenty 
minutes in length at one time. 

FOURTH GRADE. 

Reading — in a First Keader. 

Spelling — with the meaning of the words explained to the 
pupils ; also, spelling short words by their elementary sounds. 

Punctuation — the names and general uses of the common marks. 

Roman Numbers — through I, V, X, L and C, and their combi- 
nations. 

Numeration — through six figures (100,000); writing numbers 
on slates. 

Tables. — Adding with and without the numeral frame, by fours, 
fives, sixes, sevens, eights, nines and tens ; also, taking threes, 
fours and fives from greater numbers. 

Mental Arithmetic. — Simple questions in addition, chiefly with 
concrete numbers. 

Object Lessons — on form, color, place, size, and parts of objects, 
for leading the pupils to make observations on common things 
not in the school-room. Let the teacher give simple descriptions 
of familiar objects, and the pupils give their names from the 
descriptions. 

Lessons in Morals and Manners — continued by means of school 
incidents, reading lessons, etc. 

THIRD GRADE. 

Reading— in the last half of a First, or the first half of a Second 
Reader. 

Spelling— with simple definitions; also, spelling by the elemen- 
tary sounds, as far as necessary to correct faults in pronunciation. 

Punctuation — with the uses of the common marks in the sen- 
tences read. 

Roman Numbers — through C, D and M. 
4.* 



42 

Written Arithmetic. — Numeration through 100,000,000 ; addition 
through examples of six or seven short columns. 

Mental Arithmetic. — Simple questions in addition and subtraction. 

Multiplication Table — through 6 times 12. 

Object Lessons — continued on form, color, place, size, and human 
body, with lessons on animals, plants, common minerals, and qual- 
ities and uses of objects, directing the children's attention to such 
qualities only as may be readily perceived. Place forms, familiar 
objects, and pictures before the pupils, and request them to give 
simple descriptions. 

Lessons in Morals and Manners — continued. 

SECOND GRADE. 

Reading — in a Second Reader. 

Spelling and Definitions — the meaning of words illustrated by 
their use in short oral sentences ; also, exercises in elementary 
sounds, continued as above. 

Punctuation — continued with applications. 

Roman Numbers — reviewed. 

Written Arithmetic — through subtraction, and in multiplication 
by one figure. 

Mental Arithmetic — in subtraction and multiplication. 

Multiplication Table- — through 12 times 12. 

Drawing and Writing on Slates — from copies on blackboard or 
charts. 

Object Lessons. — Extend the subjects of the preceding Grade. 

Lessons in Morals and Manners — continued. 

FIRST GRADE. 

Reading. — Lessons of the grade of those in the last half of 
a Second Reader. 

Spelling and Definitions — the pupils to illustrate the meaning of 
words by using them in short sentences, oral or written. 

Written Arithmetic — through multiplication, and division by two 
figures, with simple practical applications. 

Mental Arithmetic — in multiplication and division. 

Tables — division, time, weights, measures, and federal money, 
taught by illustrations, as far as practicable. 



43 

Geography — from outline maps: the Hemispheres, and North 
and South America ; also, the definition and description of con- 
tinents, mountains, islands, bays, rivers, etc. 

Writing and Drawing on Slates — from copies, also writing from 
dictation words and short sentences. 

Object Lessons — select objects that require descriptions which 
will embrace form, color, size, parts, uses, materials, etc. Extend 
place so as to include the chief objects in the local geography of 
the city, and the prominent localities in its vicinity; adding 
descriptions necessary to prepare the pupil for an intelligent use of 
text-books on Geography. 

Lessons in Morals and Manners — continued. 

Vocal Music — practised throughout the school. 

IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS, NO LESSONS TO 'BE STUDIED AFTER 
SCHOOL HOURS. 

In the Primary Schools, no lessons shall be given to be studied 
after school hours, nor shall any text-book be taken from the 
schools except by the pupils in the two higher classes. 

PROMOTIONS FROM PRIMARY SCHOOLS, HOW AND WHEN 

MADE. 

No pupil shall be promoted from any Primary School unless ex- 
amined in the highest grade of studies provided for Primary 
Schools, and found to be qualified by the Principal of the Gram- 
mar School to which the promotion is to be made, or by the City 
Superintendent, or such of his Assistants as he may designate for 
that purpose, and when so found qualified such promotion shall be 
immediately made by the Principal of the Primary School. Pro- 
motion from a lower to a higher class shall in all cases be made 
when, on examination, the City Superintendent or his Assistant 
shall find the whole or any portion of such lower class qualified for 
such promotion. 

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 

GRADE VI. 

Reading, of the grade of a Third Reader, with a review of punc- 
tuation and Roman numbers, and exercises on the subject-matter 



44 

of the lessons ; Spelling and Definitions from the reading lessons, 
with exercises on the formation, spelling and definition of compound 
and derivative words ; the meaning of words also to be illustrated 
by requiring the pupils to use them in sentences ; Written Arith- 
metic, through the simple rules and federal money, with practical 
applications ; Mental Arithmetic, as far as in "Written Arithmetic, 
to include exercises in the analysis of operations and examples, 
and in rapid calculation without analysis ; Tables of weights, 
measures, etc., reviewed, with practical illustrations ; Geography — 
Primary Geography reviewed, and Outlines of North America, in- 
cluding the United States, with definitions, and illustrations by 
means of the globe, of the form, magnitude and motions of the 
earth, latitude and longitude, etc. 

GRADE V. 

Reading, of the grade of a Third Reader (latter half), with ex- 
ercises as in the Sixth Grade ; Spelling and Definitions, from the 
reading lessons, with the exercises of the preceding grade, con- 
tinued ; Written Arithmetic, through common fractions, with their 
simple practical applications ; Mental Arithmetic to the same ex- 
tent as in Written Arithmetic, with exercises in analysis and cal- 
culation ; Geography, to include a full knowledge of the United 
States and the other divisions of North America, including De- 
scriptive Geography. 

GRADE iv. 

Reading, of the grade of a Fourth Reader, with exercises as in the 
preceding grades ; Spelling and Definitions as in the preceding 
grades, with instruction in the meaning of the prefixes of derivative 
words ; Written Arithmetic, through decimal fractions, and their 
practical applications, with a review of common fractions ; Mental 
Arithmetic — analysis of common and decimal fractions, with ex- 
ercises in calculation^; Geography, local and descriptive, through 
South America, with a review of North America ; English Grammar 
commenced, — the analysis and parsing of sentences containing 
principal parts and simple word adjuncts, with definitions of the 
terms used. 



45 



GRADE m. 

• 

Reading, of the grade of a Fourth Reader (latter half), with 
particular attention to emphasis, intonations, and variety of ex- 
pression, and with exercises on the subject-matter continued ; 
Spelling and Definitions, from the reading lessons, with exercises 
in writing miscellaneous words from dictation, and instruction in 
the prefixes and suffixes of derivatives ; Written Arithmetic, 
through the compound rules and reduction, with denominate frac- 
tions both common and decimal ; Mental Arithmetic, — a review 
of preceding grades, with exercises in calculation and analysis 
applied to compound numbers and denominate fractions ; Geo- 
graphy, both local and descriptive, through Europe and its 
divisions ; English Grrammar, — the analysis and parsing of sen- 
tences, with simple phrase or clause adjuncts ; History of the 
United States, — early discoveries, and the outlines of Colonial 
History. 

GRADE II. 

Reading, of the grade of a Fifth Reader, with exercises as in the 
Third Grade ; Spelling, from the reading lessons, with exercises in 
writing miscellaneous words, and in the analysis and construc- 
tion of words according to the rules for spelling ; Definitions, from 
the reading lessons, with instructions in Etymology, including the 
prefixes and suffixes, and easy Latin roots ; Written and Mental 
Arithmetic, through percentage and its applications to commission, 
insurance, stocks and interest, both simple and compound ; Geo- 
graphy, both local and descriptive, through Asia, Africa and 
Oceanica ; English Grammar, — the analysis and parsing of easy 
complex and compound sentences, with exercises in the correction 
of false syntax, and in composition ; History of the United States, 
through the War of the Revolution; Algebra (for boys only), 
through fractions. 

GRADE I. 

Reading, Spelling and Definitions, as in the Second Grade ; 
Etymology continued, with the analysis of words and their forma- 
tion from given roots ; Written and Mental Arithmetic, for girls, 



46 

through the problems of interest, discount, profit and loss, and 
proportion ; for boys, through evolution, — exercises as in preced- 
ing grades ; GeograjDhy, local and descriptive, reviewed, with 
outlines of Physical Geography, and exercises in map-drawing ; 
English Grammar, — the analysis and parsing of sentences of or- 
dinary construction, with the correction of false syntax, and exer- 
cises in composition; History of the United States, — outlines 
completed and reviewed ; Astronomy, — the solar system, with a 
description of the sun and planets, and definitions of terms ; Con- 
stitution of the United States and Book-keeping (for boys exclu- 
sively) ; Algebra (for boys), through simple equations. 

Penmanship shall be taught in each grade of the above course. 
Instruction in sewing may be given in the Female Schools. 

Every pupil passing a thorough examination in the studies pre- 
scribed for the Grammar School Course, shall receive a certificate 
of graduation for that course, which shall entitle to promotion to 
the Supplementary Course. 

SUPPLEMENTARY COURSE OF STUDIES FOR FEMALE GRAMMAR 

SCHOOLS. 

In addition to the regular course of studies above prescribed, the 
following Supplementary Course may be pursued in the Female 
Grammar Schools. 

SECOND GRADE, 

For a period not less than one year : Arithmetic and English 
Grammar reviewed ; Physiology, Astronomy ; Algebra, through 
simple equations ; Natural Philosophy, including mechanics, hydro- 
statics, and pneumatics ; Ancient History ; Geometry, through the 
first book of Legendre, or an equivalent ; Composition ; Elocution. 

FIRST GRADE. 

For a period not less than one year : Review of English Gram- 
mar and Arithmetic ; Algebra, through quadratic equations ; 
Higher Asti'onomy ; Natural Philosophy, completed ; Rhetoric and 
Composition ; Modern History ; Geometry through the fourth 
book of Legendre, or an equivalent ; Elocution. 



47 



SUPPLEMENTARY COURSE FOR MALE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. 

The followiBg course of studies may be pursued in the Male 
Grammar Schools, to occupy one year or more, as may be neces- 
sary : 

Arithmetic, and English Grammar, continued and reviewed; 
Algebra through quadratic equations ; Geometry, — first four books 
of Legendre, or an equivalent ; Mensuration ; Elements of Natu- 
ral Philosophy, Chemistry and Astronomy ; Science of Govern- 
ment, including a knowledge of the Government of the United 
States, and the general provisions of the State Constitutions, with 
a brief outline of municipal and international law ; Book-keeping ; 
Mechanical and Architectural Drawing ; Declamation and Compo- 
sition. 

STUDENTS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY COURSE, HOW SELECTED. 

The City Superintendent of Schools, or one of the Assistant Su- 
perintendents shall select, at every examination of a Grammar 
School, such of the pupils as may be found qualified to pursue the 
Supplementary Course, and additional pupils, who have not at- 
tended any Grammar School during the year next previous, may 
also be admitted to the Supplementary Course by the principal of 
the school ; but no class shall be formed in the Supplementary 
Course with less than fifteen pupils, nor shall any such class be 
continued if the actual average attendance of pupils, for a period 
of three months, be less than fifteen. 

MUSIC, DRAWING, LATIN, GERMAN, Etc. 
Exercises in vocal music shall be given in each Primary and 
Grammar School ; and instruction in musical notation and reading 
shall be given to the pupils of the First, Second, and Third Grades, 
and of the Supplementary Course in Grammar Schools ; Drawing, 
with exercises in perspective, and the delineation of objects, shall 
be taught in the same grades. The Board of Trustees may also 
authorize the Latin Language to be taught in any Grammar bchool 
in the Ward in which the Supplementary' Course is pursued ; but 
the same shall be taught only by teachers employed in the schools 



48 

to give instruction in other branches of study. The French or 
German language may be pursued in connection with the studies 
of the flbrst and second grades, and the Supplementary Course of 
studies. 

A WEEKLY REVIEW IN EACH CLASS. 

Once in each week there shall be in every class of each course, 
a review of the studies of the previous week, at which review all 
text-books shall be laid aside by teachers and pupils." 

Our plan in this report was to present a somewhat detailed 
account of the New York system, as the largest, strongest, most 
clearly defined and matured, and then to point out briefly, 
wherein the systems in the other cities visited differ from that 
of New York. 

The first great difference is in the powers of the School Boards. 
The school authorities in Philadelphia are similar to those in 
New York in tliat there are general and local Boards. For 
school purposes, Philadelphia is divided into twenty-six sections. 
The general, the Board of Controllers of Public Schools, con- 
sists of twenty-six members, one for every section, chosen annu- 
ally. The local Boards consist of twelve for each section, chosen 
annually, and called Directors ; thus making in all three hundred 
and thirty-eight persons connected with the direct administration 
of public instruction in the city of Philadelphia. The relations 
of these Boards to each other are similar to those of the Boards 
of Commissioners and of Trustees in New York. The general 
authority, direction and supervision is with the smaller, the Board 
of twenty-six Controllers ; the particular management and care, 
selection of teachers, etc., is with the larger, the Boards of 
Directors ; their action subject in all important particulars to the 
confirmation of the Controllers. The Directors of each section 
have their own separate organization, time and place of meeting, 
etc., and each organization has th3 special charge of the 
schools of its section. There is this very important difference, 



49 

however, which is telling, and probably will tell more and more 
in favor of the New York schools as compared with any in the 
country. So far as the schools and public instruction is con- 
cerned, the New York Board of Education has a much more 
independent hold of the purse-strings, and can demand, or 
raise, in addition to what is received from the School Fund in 
the State Treasury, whatever amount of money may be needed ; 
the only limitation to this power seems to be that the amount raised 
shall not exceed a given sum for each pupil attending the public 
schools. But as fast as the pupils increase, the amount of 
money can increase, and thus the provisions in the way of 
school-houses, teachers, etc., for public education, can always, at 
the judgment and discretion of those specially intrusted with it, 
keep pace with the demand and the necessity for these pro- 
visions. In Philadelphia neither the Board of Controllers, nor 
the local Boards of Directors, can raise any money. In this 
respect they are entirely dependent upon the appropriations 
made by the City Councils. Theoe appropriations are some- 
times generous, yet sometimes clogged by provisions or restric- 
tion, which interfere with their application, — as for instance, the 
appropriation a few years ago, of one million of dollars for the 
erection of school edifices, which in their last published Report 
the Controllers say, " remains a dead letter upon the Statute 
Book, until such time as the loan may be negotiated at par." It 
is observable, therefore, that the action of the school authori- 
ties, in Philadelphia, is much less free and independent, and 
their schools, in some respects, less progressive than those of 
New York. They have several admirable school edifices, some" 
of which have been noticed in the narrative portion of this 
report, but that these edifices may all correspond to the amount 
of her wealth and population, and to the grand and. paramount 
importance of the public interest to which they are consecrated, 
Philadelphia needs to expend a very considerable portion of the, 
million of dollars now unavailable to the Controllers, because it 
5 



50 

must be realized through " a loan negotiated at par." In inter- 
nal structure and management, the schools of Philadelphia com- 
piise four grades, — the High Schools, the Grammar, the Second- 
ary, the Primary, with a number of schools designated as 
" unclassified." The excellent High Schools have already been 
described. In the administration of the three lower grades, Phila- 
delphia differs from New York and many other cities, in that it 
has no Superintendent of Public Schools, and hence no inspec- 
tion and examination of the schools by any persons able to give 
their whole time, and through training and experience, thor- 
oughly competent to the work. The Master or Principal of 
each school makes a quarterly report to the Controllers, which 
must be approved by one of the Directors of his Section, but 
neither the Directors nor Controllers make thorough quarterly 
examinations of each school, and there is no Superintendent to 
do it, hence the instruction in the grades so intimately related to 
each other as the Grammar, Secondary, and Primary, did not 
seem so uniform, so well organized and administered as it 
would be under the supervision of a competent and faithful 
Superintendent. 

Within a few years the Board of Controllers have secured a 
higher standard of character and qualifications in the teachers 
of their public schools, through the adoption of a plan which 
was formerly proposed in the Boston School Board, but unfor- 
tunately failed to receive its approval. They have a Committee 
on Qualifications of Teachers, who hold two examinations each 
year, in May and November, and award four classes of cer- 
tificates to those who are found qualified. The holder of a first 
class certificate is eligible to the position of Principal of a. 
Grammar School ; of a second class, to that of First Assistant 
or any lower position in Grammar School, or to that of Princi- 
pal of a Secondary or Unclassified School; of the third class, 
to the position of Second Assistant, or any lower post in a 
Grammar School, and of Principal of a Primary School ; and of 



51 

the fourth class, to that of Third or Fourth Assistant in a Gram- 
mar School, or any lower position; and no person can be 
elected a teacher in these schools unless holding one of these 
certificates. This Committee, in conducting their examinations, 
may ask the assistance of such of the Principals of the Boys' 
Grammar Schools, or of the Faculty of the Boys' High School, 
(and no others) as they may deem proper, and shall make and 
observe such rules as will at all times insure the utmost fair- 
ness and impartiality. No matter what the system of organiza- 
tion and instruction, the securing of competent teachers, thor- 
oughly qualified, intellectually and morally, is the great requisite 
for the success of any system, and Philadelphia, through the 
plan of which a synopsis is given above, is rapidly securing the 
benefit of this great requisite. Philadelphia differs from New 
York, in holding two sessions a day, in all but the High Schools ; 
and requires, that so far as practicable, the afternoon session 
shall be employed in explaining the lessons to be recited the 
next day. Here, as in New York, the text-books are not uni- 
form, the local Boards being permitted to select from the 
list adopted by the Controllers. In Philadelphia, as in New 
York, text-books and stationery are furnished at the public ex- 
pense. The statistics upon this point, in New York, were not 
ascertained ; but in Philadelphia the average cost is less than a 
dollar to each pupil. The last published Report of the Board 
of Controllers, for the year 1865, states the number in attend- 
ance in all the Public Schools in the city for that year, to be 
75,893. The expenditure for books and stationery that year, 
was $65,382,68. 

The Public Schools of the city of Baltimore were established 
by an act of the Legislature of Maryland in 1826 ; and a more 
recent act of the Legislature, passed in 1865, establishing a 
uniform system of free schools, throughout the State, is not con- 
sidered as intended to interfere with the progress of the Balti- 
more city schools, nor to effect any change in their government 



52 

or method of management, though there has been no legal 
decision on this point, other than a recommendation to this effect 
bj a committee of the Legislature. This recent act is not very 
popular with the citizens of Baltimore, as a very considerable 
portion of the State Educational Fund, raised by an annual tax, 
for the support of the free schools, comes from the tax-payers in 
the city of Baltimore, while the pro rata distribution of this fund 
is much more favorable to the counties than to the city of Balti- 
more ; and if the act were interpreted as applicable to the Bal- 
timore schools, and placed them under the same methods and 
managements as the county schools throughout the State, it would 
be a serious injury to them. The organization of the school 
authorities in Baltimore differs from that of New York or Phil- 
adelphia. In Baltimore, the public schools are under the charge 
of twenty persons, one for each ward, constituting the Board of 
Commissioners, and appointed annually by the City Council. 
This Board is organized by the choice of a President, Treasurer 
and Secretary, and the appointment of various committees, and 
has the sole charge of the administration of Public Instruction 
in the city ; expending such sums as may be appropriated by the 
City Councils. Hitherto the Treasurer seems to have been the 
active administrative agent, and his office the centre of direction 
and influence. Recently Baltimore has instituted the office of 
Superintendent of Public Schools, and appointed, as its first in- 
cumbent, the late Treasurer of the Board of Commissioners. 
Released from his financial duties, and enabled to give his whole 
time to their wise, earnest, faithful supervision, it may reasonably 
be expected that through his suggestions and influence, the public 
schools of Baltimore, which have been steadily progressing every 
year, will receive fresh impetus. There would be an advantage, 
perhaps, in having the Commissioners of Public Schools chosen 
directly by the people, instead of being the appointees of the City 
Council. Their tenure of office Avould seem to be a little more 
independent, and their election by the people would tend to bring 



53 

the public schools, and everything connected with them, more 
directly within the cognizance, sympathy and interests of the 
citizens generally. There is already, however, a strong interest 
felt in them ; they are gaining more and more of the public con- 
fidence and sympathy; the number of pupils and teachers 
increases every year, and all through the recent national strug- 
gle, the progres.s of Public Instruction in Baltimore suffered no 
abatement. The public schools of Baltimore are organized with 
three grades. Primary, Grammar and High Schools. Test-books 
and stationery are furnished at the expense of the city, and the 
text-books are uniform in all schools of the same grade. The 
cost of text-books and stationery seems to be somewhat larger, 
in proportion to the pupils than in Philadelphia. In Baltimore 
the number of pupils in the public schools in 1865, was 16,523, 
and the expenditure for text-books and stationery was $33,494.38. 
In Philadelphia the expense per pupil for the same year was a 
little less than one dollar ; in Baltimore it was a little over two 
dollars. 

The public schools of Baltimore are free, and there are sev- 
eral Evening Schools for those not able to attend during the day ; 
but, it would seem, that either voluntarily on the part of some, 
or. on some ratio to which all are subject, a small sum is paid for 
tuition, as the Treasurer's Report for every school acknowledges 
the receipt of a certain amount, varying with each school, for tui- 
tion. The amount thus received, however, is not large com- 
pared with the whole expense. The whole cost of Public 
Instruction in the city of Baltimore for 1865 was, $281,503 60; 
the amount received for tuition was, $29,789.65, leaving $251,- 
713.95 to be provided for by the appropriation made by the 
City Council. The principle of emulation, whose influence we 
are seeking to discourage in Boston, is recognized in Baltimore, 
as in New York, and the Peabody Prizes correspond to the 
Lawrence Prizes in our High Schools. The organization of the 
Baltimore schools into three grades, Primary, Grammar and 

5* 



54 

High, and the arrangements for semi annual examinations and 
transfers from grade to grade are excellent. As in New York 
the Girls' Grammar Schools are exclusively under the charge of 
female teachers. The chief argument in favor of this seems to be 
that female teachers, competent to be at the head of a Grammar 
School, can be procured at a smaller salary than male teachers. 
In the Boys' Grammar Schools in all our cities, many of the assist- 
ant teachers are females ; it is thought to be an advantage, and 
unquestionably is so, to bring boys in contact with and under 
the influence of teachers of both sexes; the reasoning would 
hold good for girls, and there is undoubtedly a benefit in having 
the girls of the first class in a Grammar School, many of whom 
complete their education there and do not pass on to the High 
Schools, brought in contact and under the influence of a male 
teacher. The Grammar Schools in Baltimore are small in 
the number of pupils attending any one school — 322 being the 
largest number at any boys' school, and 415 the largest at any 
girls' school ; the salary of the Principal of the former being 
$1,300, and of the latter $700. Fewer schools, with a larger 
number of pupils gathered in each, would authorize larger sala- 
ries to the Masters, and would thus draw into the service the 
best educational talent and experience, and the result would be 
a general elevation and advancement to the public schools, which 
in their condition and progress are justly regarded as an honor 
to the Monument City. 

The city of Washington was early empowered to establish 
and superintend public schools through a Board of Trustees. 
The present organization of school authorities dates back 
only about twenty years; at least their last printed Report 
is styled the Twenty-First Annual Report. For educational 
purposes the city of Washington is divided into four districts, 
and the Mayor annually appoints, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Board of Aldermen, three persons from each 
district, to constitute a Board of Trustees of Public Schools, 



55 

and is himself ex officio, a member and President of the Board. 
At the same time, and in the same manner, he appoints a Secre- 
tary and a Treasurer of the Board, — the one to keep tlie 
records, and the other to keep the accounts and disburse the 
moneys, but neither having any vote or voice in the acts or pro- 
ceedings of the Board. The powers of these Trustees seem to 
be rather limited, and to relate almost exclusively to internal 
arrangements and administration. They have power to appoint 
all teachers of every grade, and change them at pleasure ; but 
the maximum of salary that may be given them is determined 
by the City Government: the Trustees have power only to 
employ teachers at less than the maximum salary allowed, if 
they can procure those whom they deem competent. The Trus- 
tees may make and execute such by-laws, rules and regulations, 
for the management of the schools, as they may deem proper, 
prescribe the course of studies, and determine the text-books, 
only by enactment of the City Government ; the text-books must 
be uniform in all schools of the same grade, and cannot be 
changed except by a two-thirds vote of the whole Board ; but 
they cannot increase the number of the schools, nor alter their 
grades. These are determined by enactment of the City Gov- 
ernment, and since 1862 have consisted of one male and one 
female Grammar School for each district, one male and one 
female Intermediate School for each district, with Secondary and 
Primary Schools — the number of each definitely determined, but 
varying with the size of the district ; and for four months from 
the middle of October annually there is one evening school in 
each district for the benefit of those unable to attend the day 
schools. In the erection of school-houses, selection of site, plan 
and arrangement, the trustees have some participation. The 
erection of a new school-house having been resolved by the City 
Government the execution of the resolve is intrusted to a com- 
mittee of two from the Aldermen, two from the Council, and 
four from the Trustees, the Mayor being ex officio Chairman of 



56 

the Committee, — ■ a mode of proceeding in the erection of school- 
houses which it would not be unwise to adopt in our own city. 
Although the powers of the Board Trustees are somewhat 
limited as compared with those of the school authorities in some 
other cities ; yet, through a hearty and earnest co-operation with 
them on the part of the City Government, the schools in the city 
of Washington are full of life and progress. 

We have made, in the previous portion of this Report, occa- 
sional reference to music, as taught and heard by the Committee, 
in the schools of the different cities visited, but as this important 
department of public instruction is peculiarly a thing by itself, 
of which only the initiated can judge, and as the accomplished 
Chairman of our Committee on Music, Dr. J. Baxter Upham, 
paid special attention to this subject, we requested him to pre- 
sent the results of his observations and inquiries upon this point, 
and respectfully submit the following from his pen : 

INSTRUCTION IN VOCAL MUSIC. 

B}' the General Rules and Regulations of the Board of Educa- 
tion of the city and county of New York exercises in vocal 
music are required to be given in each Primary and Grammar 
School ; and instruction in musical notation and reading to the 
pupils of the First, Second and Third Grades, and of the Supple- 
mentary Course, in the Grammar Schools. These requirements, if 
rigidly carried into effect, would insure a considerable degree of 
proficiency in this branch of instruction among the pupils in the 
higher classes in the schools. No provision, however, is made for 
the proper elementary teaching of music in the Primary Depart- 
ment and the lower grades of the Grammar ; and the result is nat- 
urally, that at the period when " musical notation and reading" is 
required to be taken up, it is found to be practically impossible 
without a much larger provision for instruction than is allowed. 
Essentially, therefore, the system resolves itself into a rote-system 
throughout. And, so far as the observations of this Committee 
extended, they failed to find any systematic and progressive plan 



57 

of musical instruction in the schools. Pianos were found in the 
Girls' High and in such of the Grammar Schools as were visited ; 
but they were not of the best, and only approximately in tune. 
Competent and accomplished teachers are for the most part em- 
ployed. There is no uniformity in the books required, each 
teacher using such text-books and to such extent as he pleases. 
One hour each week is devoted to this instruction. It is all given 
in the large hall of the building to, of course, by far too large a 
number of pupils at once ; but the effect of the musical perform- 
ances produced by such large numbers of unison voices was, in 
the main, good, oftentimes impressive, the j)ose of the pupils ad- 
mirable, and their discipline and attention the best possible. 

In Philadelphia less attention is given to music in the schools 
than in New York, or, indeed, in any of the other cities visited by 
the Committee — no public provision being made for its instruction. 
When taught at all in the schools, the expense of such tuition is 
defrayed by a private subscription among the pupils. And the 
pianos are either procured in a similar manner, or are purchased 
from the proceeds of public concei'ts given by the pupils for this 
express purpose ; and thus it is by sufferance only that any musical 
education is acquired. Under all these difHculties, however, the 
Committee found a good deal to admire and commend. In one or 
two of the Grammar Schools the music lesson was in progress at 
the time of their visit. The class, which was a large one, occupied 
three rooms, contiguous and communicating each with the other by 
means of sliding doors or windows, an arrangement not without 
its serious disadvantages. Both the piano and violin, in one 
instance, were used in accompaniment. The pupils sung with spirit, 
and in good voice and tune, but without that interest and appre- 
ciation of their work which comes only from some knowledge of 
the principles of the art — for here, as in New York, rote-teaching 
was principally employed ; this was from no fault on the part of 
the teachers who would willingly have given to their classes the 
benefit of elementary instruction, if time and opportunity had been 
permitted them. Under the existing condition of things anything 
like progress, beyond a very limited extent, in this department of 
instruction, was not to be expected. In the case of the Girls' High 



58 

and Normal School, however, an exception to this general state- 
ment must be made. Here a portion of each day is devoted by a 
faithful and accomplished teacher to instruction in music, and both 
the elementarj^ study and practice of it is enjoined upon the pupils ; 
and the result, as might be anticipated, was seen in their superior 
performances. In this school the pupils were submitted to a brief 
examination, before the Committee, in the elementary principles of 
music, with very creditable results. The Committee feel bound to 
saj^, in justification of the appreciation of this subject on the part 
of the Board of Controllers of the Public Schools of the city of 
Philadelphia, that the}'-, last j^ear, unanimously passed an order, 
requestihg the appropriation of six thousand dollars by the City 
Councils toward the establishment of a regular and general plan of 
instruction in music as a branch of common school education. The 
plan was however defeated in the Councils. 

In Baltimore the Committee found that a well-devised and sj^s- 
tematic plan of instruction in music had been in operation for 
about a year and a half, the fruits of which were already apparent. 

The schools of Baltimore, as has been already stated, are 
grouped in two grand divisions, called respectively the Eastern and 
Western Districts. Each District has its special teacher of music, 
who is held responsible for the musical instruction of all the schools 
within the limits of his charge. A Standing Committee on Music 
is chosen from the Board of Commissioners to whom is intrusted 
the general care and supervision of this department of instruction 
in all the schools. Under this excellent organization, music is 
beginning to be taught through all the grades of the Primai-y, 
Grammar and High Departments of the Public Schools. It should 
be added that the recognized head of the musical department of 
the District selects, with the co-operation of the principals, in 
each of the schools under his care, the teacher most suitable to 
take charge of the musical instruction of the various classes of 
that school. In this Avay an interested and efficient corps of assist- 
.ants ought to be acquired. The music teacher of the District is 
thus at liberty to inspect each school and the several classes of 
each school, and to give his personal attention and tuition where 
it is found to be most required. 



59 

There lias also been formed in each District what is called the 
"Teachers' Musical Association," — a kind of Normal School in 
music, — under the charge of the District teacher, which cannot 
but prove an important element in the development of this plan 
of musical instruction. 

." Under this system of instruction," says the Report of the Dis- 
trict teachers to the Commissioners of Public Schools, "all the 
classes, from the lowest in the Primary Schools to the highest in the 
Grammar Schools, receive a short lesson in music each day, and the 
classes in the High Schools two in each wfeek." In the lower classes 
of the Primary Schools are taught the characters of music, the use 
of the syllables and numbers in connection with singing the scale. 
The next higher classes are taught the rests and notes on the staff, 
etc., each class being graded from the lowest to the highest. The 
lowest classes in the Grammar Schools receive the promotions of 
the Primary. Here they are taught to sing exercises in time, — 
in simple forms. In the next higher classes solfeggios and more 
difficult exercises are put in practice. And thus the tuition is beino- 
carried forward progressively through all the classes in the Gram- 
mar and High Schools. 

In Washington, instruction in vocal music is now given in all 
the Grammar, Intermediate and Secondary Schools but not in 
the Primaries. Here, as in Baltimore, a standing committee on 
music forms a part of the organization of the Board of Trustees 
of the Public Schools. One teacher only, who is styled a Professor 
of vocal music, is at present employed in this department of study. 
He receives from the Board of Trustees of the Public Schools, a sal- 
ary of one thousand dollars per annum for his services. His time is 
divided among the various classes of the forty-three schools which 
constitute his charge ; and — as is justly stated by the Committee 
on Music in one of their recent rejDorts — in the peculiarly scattered 
condition of their schools, " a considerable disadvantage is experi- 
enced by the teacher of music, both in loss of time required to go 
from one school to another, and the want of opportunity to make a 
judicious classification." Pianos are now being placed in the 
Washington schools. These instruments, in like manner as in 
Philadelphia and Baltimore, are purchased from the proceeds of 



60 

concerts given by the pupils of the Public Schools for that 
purpose. 

Having tliua presented a narrative of their proceedings, and 
a synopsis of what tlioy observed and ascertained in the differ- 
ent cities visited, the Committee would embody some of the 
conclusions to wliich they have been brought, in the following 
suggestions or propositions : 

I. The importance of full and adequate powers in the body 
that has authority and chai-ge, and is responsible for the public 
schools, and the condition and progress of public instruction 
in a large city, whether that body be entitled a School Committee, 
or a Board of Education, or of Controllers, or of Commis- 
sioners. The city of New York affords striking evidence and 
illustration of this, where, if the Board of Education retain 
their present powers, and act with the wisdom and energy they 
have manifested, there will, in a few years, be a system of pub- 
lic education and' a condition of the public schools altogether in 
advance probably of anything to be found in this country. The 
general laws defining the powers, and regulating the action of 
the School Committees in the towns and rural districts of a 
State, are not applicable, do not give adequate authority, to the 
body having charge of the schools, and of public instruction, 
in a large and growing city. In Boston, we have suffered little 
from some very decided limitations, in one or two important 
directions, of the powers, of the School Committee, because 
there has always been a very cordial harmony between that 
Committee and the City Government; and the latter body has 
commonly been ready, in a generous and courteous manner, to 
make whatever appropriations might be necessary to meet the 
suggestions or sustain the action of the former. Still the tes- 
timony and example even of Boston are not such as to subvert 
the result of all human experience, that a divided responsibility 
diminishes the sense of responsibleness, and impedes efficient 



61 

and progressive action; and tlie condition of public instruction 
in the city of New Yovk indicates that there is little evil and a 
large balance of good, in favor of intrusting the public schools 
exclusively to one body with full and adequate powers, espe- 
cially with the provision, very stringent in the New York organi- 
zation, that no member of this body, no school officer of any 
kind shall be in any way, directly or indirectly, pecuniarily con- 
nected with or interested in any kind of contract, touching the 
public schools. 

II. The importance and advantage of regular and systematic 
examinations of the public schools by professional educators, 
thoroughly competent to the work. This has been alluded to as 
one of the most excellent features in the New York system. 
We have the means of accomplishing this in Boston. If the 
new arrangement, partially adopted recently, be fully carried out, 
and the Masters of the Grammar Schools, released from the imme- 
diate care of the first Class in these schools, be left at liberty to 
inspect and examine, and for an hour or two teach in all the 
schools in the District, and be made more responsible for their 
character and condition, we should have an admirable system, 
a three-fold oversight and examination ; and negligence, incom- 
petency, want of wisdom and tact would be early detected and 
remedied. There would be, first, the examination of the Master 
of the District, fresh from the direct work of teaching and con- 
ducting a school; second, that of the Superintendent, fresh from 
his constant study of theories and principles, inspecting, from 
his professional standpoint, the work of the Masters and all the 
teachers; and, third, that of the District Committees, fresh from 
the walks of daily life, where knowledge is used and applied, 
examining and looking into everything from their practical 
standpoint, as more directly engaged in various pursuits and 
occupations of society. 

III. The importance of arranging the programme of studies 
by designating the subjects to be learned, rather than by naming 

6 



62 

the text-books to be used. We have already done this for our 
Primary Schools. It should also be done for the Grammar 
Schools. The effect would be to secure the teaching of the sub- 
ject rather than the book, ideas, rather than words. 

IV. There would be an advantage in combining the hall and 
its influences, as in New York, with our larger and more com- 
modious class-rooms. The assembling in the hall, at the open- 
ing of the morning session, of the whole school, teachers and 
pupils, to unite in a common service, has a good effect upon the 
order, discipline and moral esj)rit de corps of the school. It 
makes it a unit once every day, and there is in every way an 
immense benefit in that. 

V. There is an advantage in our plan of scattering the Pri- 
mary Schools in various parts of the Grammar School Districts. 
It is better than the plan of centralizing them, which has pre- 
vailed in New York, but which they are beginning to modify, 
and will probably ultimately abandon. In Boston there is a 
larger proportion of the children of the best classes of the pop- 
ulation at the public schools than in most other cities, and this 
attendance has undoubtedly been much promoted by multiplying 
and widely scattering of our Primary Schools all over the city. 
This operates ; favorably in two ways. First, the Primary 
Schools being neighborhood schools, the pupils are more homo- 
geneous as regards the social position of their families ; and sec- 
ondly, a small good Primary School in the immediate neighbor- 
hood has induced many a parent to send a child there, whom he 
would have sent to a private school, had there been no public 
Primary School short of half a mile or more from his residence. 
Finding that his child goes to school with his neighbor's chil- 
dren, is well cared for, thoroughly instructed, and constantly 
improving, the parent is well pleased to let it continue and go 
through the whole course of instruction in the Grammar and 
High School, wherein it can obtain as thorough and complete an 
education as it can obtain at any of the private schools of the city. 



63 

' VI. The importance of having able and experienced teach- 
ers in the Primary Schools cannot be overestimated. The man 
who lays the foundations for a structure, needs to be as thor- 
oughly accomplished for the work he undertakes to do, as the 
artist who designs and carves the capitals of its columns or 
adorns its walls with beautiful frescoes. There is wisdom 
therefore in the plan we have long pursued in Boston, of pay- 
ing good salaries to Primary as well as Grammar School teach- 
ers : experienced and competent teachers are thereby obtained 
and kept in the public service. 

VII. There is need of more teaching and less giving of 
tasks, less hearing of memoriter recitations to find out what the 
pupil knows, and more oral instruction, especially in arithmetic 
and grammar, more simple and practical elucidation to impart 
and make the pupil understand what he does not know. 

VIII. The cost of text-books per scholar is apparently less 
in cities where they are furnished at the public expense, as a 
part of the school furniture, than where each pupil procures 
them for himself. Our schools are admirably furnished with 
maps, globes, booiss of reference, etc., for the common use : it 
might be well to make the experiment of furnishing them with 
text-books. 

IX. Some plan for the more tliorough and systematic exam- 
ination of teachers, by a thoroughly competent board of exami- 
ners, who shall give the successful candidates certificates desig- 
nating the grade of their qualifications, ought to be regarded as 
a measure of great practical importance. An attempt at this 
was formerly made in our Committee, but failed to be adopted. 
The practical results of such a system, as exhibited in the 
schools of some of the cities visited, especially those of New 
York and Philadelphia, should commend it to the serious re- 
consideration of the Boston School Committee. 

In conclusion the Committee feel a grateful satisfaction and 
pleasure in saying, that they were everywhere received by the 



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64 



school and city authorities with the greatest courtesy and kind- 
ness; unstinted hospitalities were showered upon them, and 
every facility and opportunity, that could be desired, was ofiFered 
to them to examine the schools and ascertain the principles and 
methods of their organization and their practical working in 
administration. Immediately on their return they passed ap- 
propriate votes, etc., which were communicated through their 
Secretary, making hearty and suitable acknowledgments to all the 
authorities and persons from whom they received kind and con- 
siderate attentions ; but they feel it to be due to themselves and to 
this Board, to make this public acknowledgment in their Report; 
and imperfect and inadequate as they feel their Report to be, 
they hope it will confirm the wisdom of the measure which 
they were intrusted to execute. 

Respectfully submitted. 

S. K. LOTHROP, 

For the Committee. 



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